The Questions We Ask
by trashdotexe
Summary: Switching between the views of Poppy, Branch, and Creek.
1. Chapter 1

Creek felt the cart stop. Cautiously, as not to wake the bergen beneath him, he lifted his head and unfolded himself from the fetal postion. He stuck his head out of the pack. Creek sighed with relief when he saw that the flames had died out and they had not crashed.

Suddenly, there was movement and a gasp behind him. Before Creek could turn around he felt fingers wrap around his body.

"Wait, wait, wait!" he yelled desperately. He tried to think of an excuse why the bergen shouldn't eat him. The Chef began to laugh, but was cut short when the ground started to rumble.

Two large, yellow eyes opened behind the bergen. Creek only had seconds to react as the ground-or at least, what he had thought was the ground-seemed to fall away from underneath them.


	2. Chapter 2

The trolls and the bergens celebrated late into the night, but the party mostly died down before midnight even struck. Many of the bergens (who had only just discovered their own internal capabilities for happiness) had never celebrated anything in their entire lives, except, of course, the return of Trollstice.

Even the trolls, the happiest creatures ever, couldn't keep the party going. It had been a very long few days. It was time for some peace and quiet: it was time to sleep.

There were a few individuals, however, who were still wide awake.

Poppy reached up to touch the crown that now lay on her head. As the last few trolls went to bed she reflected on the events that led to where she was sitting: the party that attracted the attention of the Chef, the journey she set out on to rescue her friends... and Branch. She was glad he had been with her.

She took the crown off of her head and stared at it. Her father had given it to her as he declared her the new queen, but did she deserve it? Poppy wondered silently if he truly believed in her or if it was only because of the heat of the moment.

I can do this. I saved troll village; I can rule them too.

Then again, she hadn't done that on her own. Branch had been with her.

It doesn't matter, she thought, I can still do this.


	3. Chapter 3

After the strange mountain monster swallowed both the Chef and him, Creek thought he was going the die-a thought that had popped up in his brain too many times in the past few days. Luckily, he was a troll. He caught himself using his hair. Unluckily, the monster would not open its mouth; he spent several hours huddled between its inconsistently sized teeth.

The Chef he not been quite as fortunate as Creek. As she was NOT a troll she only had arms and legs to grab onto things with. Instead of gracefully catching herself it seemed that the teeth had actually caught her. One foot was lodged painfully between two incisors... or maybe they were canines. Creek wasn't sure.

It doesn't even matter, he realized, It obviously doesn't use them for chewing.

Either way, the Chef was screaming and ocasionally cursing at him. She was yelling about deep frying him. Putting him in a salad. Maybe making him into troll flavored ice cream.

Creek tried not to let it get to him. The Chef was crazy. However, as he stared into the bubbling, glowing pool below him a feeling of dread slowly arose inside of him.

After awhile it occurred to Creek that he was sobbing. He had no idea why. Maybe it was because he realized what a huge mistake he had made. Or maybe it was the smell. It did smell awful inside of the monster. It was sort of a sickly sweet smell. Like rotting flesh and flowers. It kind of made him dizzy.

No. He was pretty sure it was the mistake thing.

By the time the monster opened its mouth to catch more prey, dawn was already creeping out. There was a dusting of orange light cast upon everything in site. There were beautiful (albeit large and most likely deadly) insects buzzing through the air. The morning was vibrant and almost had a melodic quality to it.

Creek saw none of this. He crawled out of its mouth and scrambled away. Unfortunately he forgot to account for the steep slope and tumbled down the side of the monster's mountainous body.

He hit the ground and lay there face down. Instead of getting up he screamed and beat his fists on the ground, "Why me, why me, why ME?!" Of course, he actually knew the answer to that question.

"Why am I such an IDIOT?!" He yelled. Just as he was about to stand he caught a glance at his hands. It had been to dark to see while inside of the monster, but with the aid of the gentle early light Creek now saw that his hands were grey.

He began sobbing again without tears. Creek knew he had screwed up. He had betrayed his friends, he had betrayed his king, and worst of all, he had betrayed Poppy.


	4. Chapter 4

Branch stood atop the troll tree and searched his surroundings for a bright pink troll. He was looking for Poppy. This task ended up being more difficult than he had originally anticipated for two reasons: 1) it was dark out, and 2) the tree was now covered with newly grown leaves.

He finally spotted her lying on one of the tree's knotted limbs, sleeping.

 _That makes sense,_ Branch thought, _It's been a long, tiring day. Especially for her._ She probably hadn't even meant to allow exhaustionion to take hold until she was safely bundled up in a pod; she must have dosed off.

But there was something wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but as Branch looked out at Poppy, a feeling of unease began nagging at his brain. There was a hint of something... sinister that he just couldn't brush aside. At that moment, the realization hit him full force. She...

She had gone grey. This was something he had only seen one other time in regards to Poppy.

Branch jumped down the tree, using his hair to swing towards her.

"Poppy!" he yelled as he landed.

HearingHearing his call, Poppy awoke with a start. She nearly fell to the ground, but she instinctively wrapped her hair around a small, nearby twig.

"What? What happened? What's wrong?" Poppy's voice quivered slightly as she asked this. She was a little shaken up after her sudden awakening. She stared up at Branch with wide eyes, still dangling a few inches below him.

Branch was a little shaken too, "Are you okay? What ha-" he cut himself off. Her color was... back.

 _Maybe it was just a trick of the moonlight?_ he wondered.

"N- nevermind," he was confused, "Sorry... I, um... I didn't mean to scare you," he looked down at her, "Do you need some help? That twig doesn't look stable, don't move. I'll go get some other trolls-"

"No, Branch, wait! I can do it myself," fully recovered from her start, Poppy flipped herself upwards and stuck the landing, "See? I'm fine," she smoothed out her bluish green dress and patted the dust off of it, "Now, what did you want?"

Instead of answering, Branch just wrapped his arms tightly around Poppy.


End file.
